This invention relates to hand and wrist protective wraps and supporters. More particularly, the present invention relates to a convenient, anatomically designed slip-on hand wrap and wrist support which replaces the long cloth hand wrap. The present invention is intended to prevent injury to the knuckle, hand, and wrist areas during boxing and martial arts related sports.
Participants involved in boxing and martial arts-related sports often wear hand and wrist protection under larger boxing or bag gloves for additional protection and support. This protection is commonly called a hand wrap. Traditional hand wraps are made of cotton or canvas material, and are several feet in length. The participant will tightly wrap this material around his or her knuckles, hands, and wrists. The traditional hand wrap is designed, if applied properly, to protect the knuckles, hands, and wrists from serious injury potentially resulting from impact blows to hard objects. These hand wraps can effectively prevent serious injury to hands during full contact professional or amateur fighting if they are administered and used correctly.
However, the traditional long cloth wrap suffers many drawbacks, particularly for the amateur or recreational user. As the long cloth wrap is typically worn underneath a glove, it becomes filthy and discolored almost immediately when used. Thus, the long cloth wrap requires frequent cleaning. The long cloth wrap will not maintain its shape and manageability unless it is tightly rolled when not in use. Moreover, if the traditional hand wrap is not wrapped about the hand and wrist properly, it will easily become loose and unravel. This loosening lessens, and may even eliminate, the protection to the hands and wrists.
Applying the long cloth hand wrap is a lengthy process which is cumbersome and time consuming by its nature. Preferably, the long cloth wrap is wrapped between one's fingers maintaining the fingers at an evenly spaced position. The wrap acts to prevent the knuckles from becoming distorted or smashed and acts as a shock absorber on inconsistent or uneven hits. Without adequate finger and knuckle protection, the base of the fingers become bruised and swollen, even after a light exercise, potentially resulting in future problems such as arthritis.
With the ever growing popularity of aerobic and recreational styles of boxing and martial arts enjoyed by people of all walks of life, the traditional long cloth hand wrap has been found by these users to be excessively cumbersome, inconvenient and time consuming. The long cloth wrap may also give inadequate protection to the average recreational or amateur user as, unlike the professional boxer or martial artist, the average consumer will typically wrap the long cloth around the hand and knuckles, leaving the fingers and the soft tissue between the joints of the fingers unprotected. The amateur or recreational user may also not correctly wrap the wrist, leaving the wrist prone to injury from torsional forces applied to the wrist at a variety of angles.
Some consumers, not wanting to cope with the traditional long cloth hand wrap, resort to wearing makeshift alternatives under their boxing or bag gloves such as weight lifting gloves, knuckle pads, or equipment adapted from incompatible sports. These forms of intended protection suffer a number of disadvantages. Other forms of hand protection such as knuckle pads, or glove-like devices adapted from dissimilar sports, do not have the anatomically form-fitting qualities to the knuckle, hand, and wrist areas that the traditional hand wrap was designed to protect. Nor does the design of these incompatible protection devices coincide with the consumer's ability to insert them into other gloves, such as boxing or bag gloves.
Many traditional hand wraps, knuckle pads, and glove-like devices adapted from dissimilar sports that are presently used do not embody a wrist support strap, or include only a single strap that is wrapped around the wrist from only one direction, providing limited support. As the wrist moves in many directions, these versions leave the wrist open to injuries such as sprains from compression and over extending or hyperextending the wrist in different directions.
Thus what is needed is a hand wrap better suited for the consumer involved in combative and recreational forms of boxing and martial arts which is more convenient and easy to use than the traditional long cloth hand wrap. What is also needed is a hand wrap which is contoured, cushioned protected, and comfortable for all types of consumers. What is further needed is a hand wrap which is designed for convenience and support, being able to be easily slipped on for rapid employment, fastened easily and securely, unable to loosen on its own and drawn and tightened to one's own measure of support. Additionally, a hand wrap is needed which will not become unsightly, even after extended periods of use, may be easily cleaned and will consistently maintain its shape and form. Moreover, a hand wrap is needed that is anatomically designed specifically for the demanding activities of boxing and martial arts providing effective protection to the wrist, hand, and knuckle areas. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides other related advantages.